Oh No, Not Again?!

Hi Everyone,

Again, recent events have forced me to change my topic. I have blogged about this before and I will blog about it again and again until a change is made. A change that must come and not soon enough.

Friday's massacre of 20 six and seven year olds and 6 adults in a school (not including the shooter and his mother) in Newtown, CT., means that tighter gun control must be made a reality and not lip service. Whether or not, the shooter was mentally handicapped is immaterial in this instance, due to the fact that it was his mother who legally owned the two handguns and the one semi-automatic assault rifle, which was the gun used in this unimaginable tragedy. Can someone explain to me why it is so damn important to be able to own an assault rifle? Are they used for hunting? No! Assault rifles were designed for one use and one use only. That use is to kill as many people, in as short of period of time as possible. So why do people think that they need to own one or more?

Are you aware that Michigan just last week, passed a bill that will make it legal to carry a concealed gun? Yes this is true. The Governor said that he had not made up his mind as to whether or not he will sign the bill into law. But here is another huge problem with the bill. It would allow people to carry their concealed gun into a school. Has Michigan lost its mind? Maybe that state has not experienced a mass school shooting. But approval of this bill will mean that instead of, if a mass shooting occurs to when a mass shooting occurs in a school. Schools and guns don't mix.

Add to the mix of gun control is the NRA, who has a hugely successful lobbying arm that seems to be able to get whatever they want. The NRA fights tougher gun control at every chance it has to and so far they are winning. This has got to stop. A minority of people, (gun owners), can not and should not make guns law controls for the entire country.

Are you aware that 40% of all gun sales in this country don't even have a background check done? Amongst other things, people legally sell their guns outside of each and every gun show. Those sellers don't care who their buyer is, they only care that their buyer has cold hard cash. How many more innocent kids and adults must die before we have tighter gun controls? This should not be a political issue, but it has and probably always will be a political issue. Politicians should get over their political differences and actually enact a law that will save and protect our kids as well as adults.

Any new gun control laws should be implemented in steps. The first step in my book of common sense rules, tells me to outlaw the ownership of any assault weapons. The only people in this country who should have and use assault weapons are the police and military. There is no necessity for any one else to own them, period. Step two is for all owners of such guns to mandatory turn them in, maybe for cash. Step three is to have a minimum jail time of say, 10 years, if convicted of having one. More jail time if it is used in a crime. Step four is that all gun owners must have their guns safely stored in one of those gun safes with a combination lock and no key lock! We must do something to  prevent these type of tragedies from happening again. 

Schools should be a safe haven for kids without the fear of being killed. Not only did the shooter take away 27 lives prematurely, he stole the innocence of countless other children who survived. Whether or not they heard or saw something, their class/school mates, teachers and Principal were killed and are never coming back. To make matters worse, the shooter's actions will cause an undetermined amount of kids to have some kind of mental issues down the road. Some may even have problems that will be with them for the rest of their lives. Do we as a country, want that scenario to keep repeating over the issue of assault weapons? I hope not. It's time for a change regarding gun control and it's not happening soon enough, especially for all of the survivors, including parents of what just happened in Newtown.

I believe that the Newtown tragedy will become the straw that broke the camel's back and more and more people are going to open their windows and scream at the top of their lungs, that they are mad as hell and aren't going to take it anymore!!! Time will tell.

Til next week.

Peter